Are Online Relationships a Waste of Time?

The Internet has made it so much easier to connect with people, especially for those who aren't particularly confident in social situations or who have busy lives and don't have the time to meet new people. Online you are able to create a more confident, likeable persona and interact with people who have similar interests and beliefs as you. There are dating and friendship sites, as well as chat rooms and forums. It only takes one exchange of messages between you and another person for you to find yourself making friends and potentially more. However, is it really worth investing your time into such relationships?

The answer depends on what you expect to get out of your online relationships. Do you accumulate online 'friends' for the purpose of extending your business contacts – finding people with similar interests in order to promote a particular product or service? Do you try to make friends with people so that you have something other than junk mail to read when you open your inbox? Perhaps you like getting to know people and genuinely get some satisfaction from learning about what people do with their time. It could be that you want more than friendship and hope to develop the relationship offline as well as on.

You also have to consider what the other person concerned wants. You may really enjoy exchanging messages with someone and really want to meet up in person, only to find out that the other person just wants to exchange dirty messages and have a bit of online fun. There is no point building your hopes up that the relationship could become something more if it's not what the other person wants. Thus, there is a danger that you could get too involved with someone and discover that the relationship means more to you than the person you exchange messages with. You could end up wasting months of your time interacting with someone, when you could have been communicating with someone else more serious about meeting up.

It is also important to be aware that not everyone is who they say they are online. Of course, the same can be said of people in 'real' life, too; not everyone tells the truth. However, the Internet gives you a sense of anonymity that you don't get in person, and it becomes easier to exaggerate a little bit here and tell a few white lies there, so that you think you know someone when you really don't have a clue. You build them up in your mind and when you finally do meet, you're disappointed.

Overall, if you spend a lot of time at the computer and just want an online companion to exchange messages with, then you can get quite a lot out of online relationships. However, ultimately, online relationships are never quite as satisfying as the real thing, and so there may come a point where you have to decide whether to bring your online relationship offline. Sometimes, this isn't always possible, though, especially when the person you're corresponding with lives so far away. Consequently, it may be worth weighing up whether your online relationship really means enough to you to keep investing so much time and energy into it when it may all lead to nothing.

Is it a Waste of Time to Try to Lose Weight?

If you're overweight you face an increased risk of developing certain health conditions, including heart disease and diabetes, which is why it definitely isn't a waste of time to try to lose weight. The trouble is that many people lose weight by going on a crash diet and then gain it all back again as soon as they go back to eating normally. Of course, you're bound to think that it's a waste of time trying to lose weight if you end up just as heavy, if not heavier, after coming off a diet. It is therefore important that you go about weight loss the right way.

It might be tempting to tell yourself that it's a waste of time trying to lose weight and that you'll only end up as heavy as before, because this gives you an excuse to avoid tackling the situation. However, this will not alter the fact that you're miserable about being overweight or that your health could begin to suffer if you continue to pile on the pounds. You therefore need to be positive about the opportunity you have to lose weight and to keep it off, rather than dwelling on past failures and trying to convince yourself that you will always be fat.

If you've gone on diets before in order to lose weight, only for the weight to return with a vengeance, this clearly isn't the path you want to take again. Instead, you need to find a way of embracing lifestyle changes that will facilitate weight management. You have to learn to get the right balance between the number of calories you consume and the number of calories you burn, so that you can lose weight or maintain a healthy weight, depending on whether you have reached your goal yet or not. This is better than trying to more-or-less starve yourself for weeks at a time.

By getting used to counting calories and increasing the amount of activity you do, you should be able to lose weight without too much difficulty. There will no doubt be the occasional slip-up, but it won't take you long to recover and to get back to it. You may not lose weight as rapidly by taking this approach as you would by going on a crash diet, but you will have a better chance of keeping it off. Your body won't end up in starvation mode and desperate for extra calories and you will be in a more appropriate frame of mind to exercise control over your eating.

Losing weight can increase your life expectancy and reduce your chances of developing a multitude of serious health conditions, so trying to do something about your weight is a good use of time, rather than a waste. Losing weight can also give your self-esteem boost and make you feel more confident in yourself, which is also a positive thing. It is never a waste of time to try losing weight, but you obviously have to approach weight loss as in a sensible way, with a view to keeping it off in the long run. If you aim to lose weight too quickly, you may be happy with the initial results, but then be disappointed when you regain every pound you lost.

Is Marriage a Waste of Time?

Since there is no longer a stigma attached to living with someone outside of marriage, it could seem to many people that marriage is a waste of time. This is especially true when you consider divorce statistics. What is the point of getting married if within a few years the marriage is going to come to a messy end, anyway? However, plenty of people are still willing to enter the institution of marriage and they are hardly likely to do so if they believe that marriage is a waste of time, are they? Clearly, then, marriage does have a place in society and many people want to get married, so that their relationship is recognised by law and, for those of a more religious bent, in the eyes of God.

If you want to spend the rest of your life with someone there is the option to just live as you are without getting married, but you may feel that this doesn't offer you enough security. By getting married, your relationship is confirmed by the law as actually existing. Thus, if you end up getting divorced, you will be able to claim your share of the financial assets that have been accumulated between the pair of you. If you choose not to get married and your relationship comes to an acrimonious end, you won't have a legal foot to stand on and so you might lose out. Of course, marriage does not always guarantee a fair solution when divorce occurs.

Many people choose to get married because they want to have children and believe that getting married will provide their children with a more stable background. Yet, this is not always true. Unhappy couples who stay together for the sake of their children may be causing more harm than good. Getting married doesn't necessarily mean that the relationship is going to last the distance, although people may try harder to make an unhappy relationship work, because they don't want to have to go through the hassle of getting a divorce and explaining the situation to family members. However, getting married does at least make it easier for you to be recognised as a parent.

This is especially important for men who can find themselves cut out of their children's lives because their former partner is aggrieved at their treatment. Men who marry the mother of their children will probably find it easier to gain access to their children than men who do not marry. Yet, even divorced men can find that their former wife makes it difficult for them to see their children. Thus, marriage is no guarantee of a harmonious family life and it is clear that it doesn't really matter whether you are married or unmarried when your relationship comes to an end, as there are always going to be arguments and it is never an easy situation to find yourself in.

There are plenty of idealists out there, though, who believe that getting married proves you love someone enough to want to spend eternity with them. By getting married, you have an opportunity to celebrate your love with other people, as you exchange your vows at a formal ceremony, before going off somewhere to have a party! If you're religious, the marriage ceremony may take on a more spiritual significance that is important to you. Whatever the reasons for choosing to marry, there are many people who do not regard marriage as a waste of time, despite the high proportion of marriages that ultimately fail. It is only cynics that question whether marriage is a valid institution in the first place!

Is Studying History a Waste of Time?

Everyone is shaped by the past – by their country's history, by their family's history and by their own individual history. It is impossible to escape history's grasp, as it colours everyday events and shapes how different sections of society think and respond. You cannot get away from the fact that political struggles and significant world events that are happening in the present are very much informed by the past. To understand the contemporary world, therefore, it is evident that studying History at school or at university is far from being a waste of time.

By studying History, you are able to appreciate just how much past events have contributed to people's identities in the past and today. History is not only the study of great leaders and great wars, it is also about uncovering the lives of ordinary individuals and looking for continuity over time, as well as changes. By learning about the past, you are able to understand more about where you come from and understand why society is the way it is. You discover that there is not only one view point, one accepted interpretation of the past, and that in many ways the past is characterised by the struggle for dominance.

When studying History, you have to get to grips with a variety of different sources and learn to question any preconceived ideas you may have had. It surely cannot be a bad thing to examine people's motives for creating a document in a particular way when those who had an education and influence in society were trying to shape what posterity would make of them. Today, there is a similar situation with those in society's higher echelons seeking to control the way they are presented in the media and hoping to secure a favourable place in history.

Studying History is definitely not a waste of time when there are so many similarities between what goes on in the past and in the present. Most people would say that studying History is important, as it helps you to avoid making the same mistakes again, but when you study History it often seems that this is precisely what happens! That doesn't make studying History any less worthwhile when change is just as significant a feature as similarities and continuities. History is a fascinating subject that has so many facets, making it impossible for you not to find something of interest to you.

History incorporates a variety of subjects, as to get a more comprehensive understanding of the past, you clearly need to consider economics, society and culture, as well as politics, which means you have an opportunity to develop a wide range of skills. Studying History enables you to analyse and evaluate a range of primary and secondary sources, to interpret evidence and to create a well-supported argument. Such skills are extremely useful in any kind of further study you may engage in and can also help you in the workplace. Consequently, the fact that studying History can broaden your knowledge base and help you in your career means that it is a useful, rather than a wasteful, way to spend your time.

Is Voting a Waste of Time?

There are those who proclaim that when you have a vote you should use it. It may be the case that our forefathers and foremothers had to fight for the vote and that we should be thankful that. Many of us do take for granted the right to vote and don't always make as much effort to follow politics as we should. However, cynicism has descended upon a generation. Of course, politicians' motives and actions have always been brought into question, but whereas there were once a few good politicians with conviction, ideals and principles, it seems that this is no longer the case.

Consequently, many people in democratic societies such as the United Kingdom see voting as a waste of time. The lack of enthusiasm for politics and voting in the UK is particularly evident because of a first-past-the-post system which has led to the domination of two political parties over the past century. Although there have been coalition governments, such as during war time and following the 2010 general election, for the most part it has been either the Conservatives or the Labour Party in power.

Increasingly, there has been little to distinguish between the two parties. Traditionally, the Conservatives have been seen as representing the interests of big business and land owners, whereas Labour were regarded as being there to fight for the working man and woman. However, money talks and Labour began cosying up to big business and media magnates, and when they were in power the process of privatisation continued, often at the expense of ordinary individuals. Many questioned whether it was worth voting when both parties were espousing the same values and developing similar policies.

Politicians from across the political spectrum seem to be all as bad as each another and it is understandable why people choose not to vote when politicians lie with such ease. Voters often make their decision on who to vote for by reading the manifestos produced by the main political parties. Unfortunately, quite often the promises that would-be politicians make in these manifestos are soon forgotten once they are elected. People who cast their vote do so on the understanding that the person they vote for will follow through with his plans and that he best represents their particular interests.

Politicians will regularly state that they are directly elected by the public and that they will be held accountable at election time. What they fail to mention is that quite often they will get less than 50 per cent of the vote, which means they are not exactly speaking for the majority. In a first-past-the-post system an election can be won or lost in a few key marginal seats, so that politicians do not have to make that much of an impression on a national scale.

All that most people remember about politicians, anyway, is when they have been involved in some kind of scandal, although this won't necessarily prevent them from being elected. Voting might seem like a waste of time and there may be very few differences between politicians, but the alternative is to live in society with an unelected president or monarch. This is something which citizens in undemocratic societies in the middle east and elsewhere in the world are unhappy with and are trying to change. Thus, despite the flaws in a democratic system at least you can cast your vote and have your say, even if you aren't really listened to.